The European Union

This is a topic where Liberal Democrat thinking and policy is widely misunderstood, so over the next few days, I want to write a series of entries covering aspects of this. If I get the time, I want to cover:

How the EU actually works. The press and politicians have colluded in demonising the EU, so exposing the myths is important to our case for Europe.

How liberal principles apply to thinking about the EU. In particular, the tension between internationalism and political liberalism is important as they tend to push things in opposite directions. I don’t mean to imply that personal, economic and social liberalism are irrelevant to the EU, but I think their impact on our thinking is more obvious.

What our policies towards Europe and its various institutions are. Again, I think exposing the myth of blind belief in the EU is important.

How The Coalition impacts our ability to reform the EU. In particular, how eurosceptic are the Conservatives and in what areas will this euroscepticism help or hinder reform.

I suspect I might bounce around these topics as I think they are deeply intertwined. This will also be a bit of a learning exercise for me: though I have fairly strong views on Europe, I have never applied any liberal (or other) political thinking to these views.